December 4, 2025 / 9:23 PM EST / CBS/AP
A federal appeals panel on Thursday issued a temporary administrative stay blocking a lower court order that would have ended the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. The one-page order gives the court more time to consider the matter and made clear the move “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb had ruled last month that President Trump’s deployment of a mix of D.C. National Guard forces and Guard units from other states unlawfully intruded on the authority of local officials to direct law enforcement in the District. Cobb found the president may act to protect federal functioning and property, but he may not unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to assist with crime control or call up out-of-state Guard troops for that purpose. She stayed her own order for 21 days to allow the administration to appeal.
The White House has asked the appeals court for a longer pause. In its filing, the administration described Cobb’s decision as a “wholly unjustified incursion into the territory of both the President and Congress.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Associated Press that “as we have always maintained, the President exercised his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard to D.C. We look forward to ultimate vindication on this issue.”
The deployments began after President Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the capital. Within about a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the District were patrolling Washington under the command of the Secretary of the Army. The administration also sent hundreds of federal agents to assist patrols.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to challenge those deployments and sought a court order barring the White House from calling up Guard troops without the mayor’s consent while the lawsuit proceeds. Schwalb’s office was not immediately available for comment on Thursday’s appellate stay.
The legal dispute intensified after an ambush in late November in which two West Virginia National Guard members—Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe—were attacked while patrolling a subway station three blocks from the White House. Beckstrom died Nov. 27 from her injuries; Wolfe is recovering. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national identified as the suspect and who was also shot in the confrontation, has been charged with murder and pleaded not guilty.
Following the shooting, the administration requested an additional 500 National Guard personnel for Washington. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced she would send 100 service members as part of that increase.
The dispute over presidential authority to deploy Guard units has played out elsewhere. The administration has sent Guard troops to Los Angeles and sought to deploy forces to Chicago and Portland, prompting separate court challenges. A federal appeals court allowed the Los Angeles deployment to proceed, and the administration is appealing a judge’s ruling in Portland that found the president lacked authority to call up or deploy National Guard troops there.